Outrage of the Week: Bloomberg Gun Control Group Claims Terrorist was "Victim of Gun Violence"

This week's outrage comes to us from New Hampshire, where New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-gun group--Mayors Against Illegal Guns--labeled a terrorist as a "victim of gun violence." 

As part of a gun control rally this week in Concord, a MAIG-sponsored "No More Names" tour bus arrived and anti-gun organizers read the names of those "killed with guns" since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school last year.  Chief among the questionable list of gun violence victims was Boston Marathon terror bombing mastermind, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

When Tsarnaev's name was read, the crowd booed, and one of the attending pro-gun counter-protesters--who significantly outnumbered the antis--shouted,  "he's a terrorist"--a point obviously lost, at the time, by the MAIG "No More Names" group.

Tsarnaev was killed by police during a shootout following the April 15 "Patriot Day" bombing.  During the car chase and apprehension, Tsarnaev threw grenades and other explosives at police and reportedly had explosive devices on his person when he died.  But he's a victim.

Under fire for their obvious gaffe, MAIG scrambled to apologize, claiming that Tsarnaev was mistakenly included on the list of victims and blaming liberal online magazine Slate.com for Tsarnaev's inclusion on the list.  Of course it wasn't MAIG's fault.  It never is with these folks.  When something goes wrong, when they get caught, they blame someone else.   

Tsarnaev and his brother stand accused of murdering three people, injuring as many as 264 others, and causing some 34 people to undergo amputations as a result of injuries from the bombing.  So, how is it that MAIG--a group that so vociferously supports "terrorist watch list" screening for gun buyers--can't manage to screen a known terrorist off its "victims" list?     

But there were other questionable "victims" on the list of names read.  It turns out that the list apparently makes no distinction as to the circumstances of the deaths it reports.  Not only does the list include terrorists, it includes suicides, home invaders shot by home owners during the course of their crime, murderers who turned their guns on themselves, and police officer shootings of criminals.  Not exactly those you'd typically consider "victims."

"This calls into question every statistic that Bloomberg and MAIG has used and will use to promote their cause," said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.  "Bloomberg has proven that he will stop at nothing, including repeating flawed statistics, in pursuit of his gun control agenda.  And he'll do this with no regard for the truth."